1. Technical Field
This invention relates to the field of electronic document processing, and more particularly, to the manipulation of attachment files.
2. Description of the Related Art
Presently, many software applications are capable of attaching copies of files to electronic documents. Common examples of such software systems include, but are not limited to, electronic mail systems, database systems, as well as collaborative systems such as Lotus Notes (TM). Once a file is attached to an electronic document, the file as well as the document can be transmitted over a computer communications network to other computer systems. Alternatively, multiple users can access the attached file using suitable collaborative software, typically over a computer communications network, as previously described. In any case, a recipient user or other user accessing an attached file can detach the file to a local system for further processing.
Conventional software systems can manipulate attached files in several ways. For example, the attached file can be viewed with a file viewer, launched or processed by another application, detached from the electronic document and stored to process the file locally, or in the case of a program file, can be executed. Presently, to detach a file from an electronic document and create a local copy of the attached file, a user must implement a multi-step process. Typically the user must highlight the file to be detached, select a detach option, and interact with a “file save” interface to specify a filename for the local copy of the attached file and the location to which the file is to be detached. This process can be tedious, especially where multiple files are to be detached. Although some systems do allow for multiple attachments to be detached simultaneously, each of the attachments must be detached to the same directory despite the type of attached file or the intended use of the attached file. Additionally, conventional systems first query the user as to where the user would like the attached files to be detached.